Order should be issued to quiet Chen

At a time when Chen, his family members and other key witnesses are being constantly called in for questioning by prosecutors, the former president is making regular visits to strongholds of support in southern Taiwan. Last week, he visited the southern city of Kaohsiung, where he appeared on a pro-opposition radio station and talked extensively about the investigations.

More recently, Chen has made a victory tour of his hometown, Kuantien in Tainan County, where he received a hero’s welcome amid throngs of staunch supporters. During his visit to Tainan, Chen appeared on yet another sympathetic radio program and talked even more extensively about his own legal case.

During the interview, Chen alleged that the money laundering and corruption charges being leveled against him were concocted by the ruling Kuomintang. Claiming that he has never been corrupt in his entire life, Chen hinted that he would make another bid for the presidency in 2012 and equivocated his own plight to that of Taiwan. Chen declared that he cannot fall because Taiwan cannot fall, and urged his supporters to help him overcome the KMT’s campaign of repression, which he said was intended to undermine Taiwan’s sovereignty and hand this island over to communists in Beijing.

As we have said before, the former president is merely attempting to move his current dilemma out of the realm of law and into the realm of politics. By mobilizing supporters and waging a counter-attack against purported enemies determined to undermine Taiwan, Chen believes he can take the initiative away from prosecutors and intimidate judges into handing him a light sentence or even an acquittal. While other disgraced politicians of all political stripes have attempted to claim persecution in order to influence the outcome of their trials before, the antics of former President Chen are unprecedented in this country.

If Chen continues persuading more people in southern Taiwan that he is somehow the victim of a campaign of political repression, then he may very well intimidate judges, who might fear domestic turmoil if a long prison sentence is handed down against Chen and his family. At this stage, prosecutors should seek a court order barring the former president from speaking in public about the investigations going on against him.

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